The Boys' Brigade Mountaineering Club

Foel Grach is the 8th highest mountain in Wales. Its top is a whale-backed grassy plateau with small boulders, typical of the Carneddau. Just below the summit is an emergency refuge hut (not to be used for planned overnight stays though). It was called Cwt Dafydd Rhos (Dafydd Rhos's Hut). The hut was built in the early 18th century for shepherds to stay in overnight before spending a whole day on the mountains gathering their sheep. Dafydd Rhos was also a shepherd, and an anti-social recluse, who spent a lot of his time at the hut. It fell into disrepair, after he died, but was restored for use as a refuge hut by installing a new corrugated iron roof and a door. This work was carried out by Clwb Mynydda Gogledd Cymru (Mountaineering Club of North Wales), with the support from Caernarvonshire County Council, in 1964. Walkers on the Carneddau have often been very grateful to have found shelter in this hut when overtaken by bad weather.

See its entries on Walkhighlands or Wikipedia or view it from above on Google Earth.

Foel comes from the Welsh word Moel with the M soft-mutated to an F after a now lost definite article) is normally an adjective that means Bald, Bald-headed or Tonsured. But in the context of a hill or mountain, it is a noun that means Mountain or Hill that it is bare or treeless. Grach mutated from Crach because Moel is a feminine noun, rather unpleasantly, is translated from Welsh as Scabs. So, the interpretation of Foel Grach is usually given as Hill of Scabs or Scabby Hill.

There is however, an alternative translation that does not seem to have been offered anywhere on the Internet, so it may well be an original interpretation. Crach has another colloquial meaning. It can also mean Poor Land and, in the Carneddau, the only possible agricultural use of the land is for grazing sheep. So Foel Grach could possibly be interpreted as Poor Pasture Hill.